Chapter 60 - x

Subaru had inferred several things about Petelgeuse's Possession.

First, it was the power to shift into the bodies of others, stealing them for himself.

Second, Petelgeuse's so-called fingers were retainers for him to transfer into, so as a precondition of defeating Petelgeuse, all the fingers had to be destroyed.

Third, if Petelgeuse lost all his fingers, he would transfer to a different body instead. Subaru's body was the leading candidate.

The parasite of the mind was so powerful, it was virtually impossible to resist by one's own devices— The end.

"Now that I'm writing these down, this is like, kills-you-as-soon-as-hesees-you-level stuff. Plus he even has Unseen Hands, so you can't just laugh and say, 'Nah, nothing's that evil.'"

The Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins had two powers. Subaru was confident that if you didn't know them, you could challenge him a hundred times and be killed every time.

In the course of repeating while keeping his memory, searching over and over for a plan to beat him, Subaru finally saw with clarity the fearsomeness of his foe. Small wonder the Witch Cult had had such influence on the world over the course of four centuries.

Such was the scale of Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti, the madman specializing in killing at first sight.

"Well, that's what I'm here for."

The best thing for taking on a kill-at-first-sight enemy was someone for whom it wasn't first sight.

Thus it was Subaru Natsuki, he who had Returned by Death, who was Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti's mortal foe.

Once again, Subaru cut through the gloomy forest of overgrown trees as his feet carried him to the wall of rock.

Green covered the landscape at every turn, a world where even directional sense seemed suspect. However, Subaru's steps were certain. His senses, his feet, the experiences carved into his memory—all these things guided Subaru forward.

"Let's get this show on the road."

Smiling bitterly at the quickening of his heartbeats, Subaru murmured thus as he gave his chest two light slaps. Then he headed forward. The place had come into view.

Until that moment, Subaru had never approached that place with the resolve to fight in his heart. The last time around, he'd been buying time as a decoy; before that he'd been drowning in the bloodlust of others and the yearning for suicide.

But this time was different. At minimum, this time was different from the others.

Subaru had come to that place with the resolve to fight hardened in his heart, all so he could bring a long, long string of karma, a battle repeated over and over, to a final end.

"—It is good that you have come, disciple of love."

Subaru shuddered with joy when suddenly the forest opened and he was greeted with warm words of welcome.

When he slipped out of the woods, a sheer cliff spread straight ahead of him, rising high into his field of vision. A slender man was standing in front of the rock face with both arms spread wide. His eyes welcomed Subaru with a fiery glow.

Was it now four times he had been greeted by this sight?

No matter who it was, when you saw someone's face repeatedly, you let the person into your heart to a certain extent—but it seemed that was impossible so far as this man was concerned.

"I AM the Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins of the Witch Cult charged with Sloth—"

The madman stretched out his hand, bloodied from self-inflicted wounds, as his trademark line lit the spark. With his eyes drenched in madness, the

man arched back, stuck out his tongue, snapping his eyes wide as he said—

"—Petelgeuse…Romanée-CONTI!!"

With a flutter of his black habit, the madman loudly proclaimed his name with a clap of his bloody hands. Petelgeuse proceeded to stamp the ground, breaking into a happy little dance as he laughed with delight.

"It is A fine day, A splendid day! To think that this day, the day of the trial, I would BE greeting a new adherent of love! I AM moved, greatly

moved, moved to tears, my chest is on the verge of bursting!!"

The madman let spittle fly as he embraced his own body of skin and bones. Subaru harbored disgust for his eccentricities, but he was accustomed enough to smooth over his facial expressions in the man's presence.

On top of that, Subaru executed the operation just as agreed upon beforehand. Namely—

"Lord Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins! It is a pleasure to meet you for the first time!"

These words spoken, Subaru rushed over and knelt at the madman's feet.

He touched his left hand to his chest, raising his right aloft as he bowed his head with utmost respect and spoke.

"I am truly embarrassed to have made it to you on the very eve of this trial! Lord Archbishop, by all means, please use this body, this soul, to fill any vacancy among the faithful, and add me to your fingers with all haste!"

Thus, with an excess of bombast, did Subaru speak bald-faced lies. He proclaimed his prepared lines with a high-pitched voice, infused his face with maximum reverence that went only skin deep, and silently awaited the madman's reaction.

" "

Petelgeuse made no response to Subaru's earnest plea. He said nothing. He did not move. The disquieting silence made Subaru swallow his saliva as he increased his caution and alertness concerning Petelgeuse's next move.

The silence continued for about ten more seconds before it was abruptly broken by—

"OOOH! Such, such fervent zeal from the very first meeting?!"

Petelgeuse gazed up, extending both hands to the heavens. His voice and his entire body were shaking; he had been moved to tears.

"What a disciple love has called! In all my time cursed as Sloth, I cannot recall one with such clear eyes! YOU! YOU, a pious adherent of love! How unworthy I must be to have overlooked you all this time! I ASK you to forgive my slothfulness—!"

Petelgeuse cast his limbs aside as he practically leaped onto the ground in front of the fragile-hearted Subaru. Without hesitation the madman prostrated himself on the rocky ground, banging his head against the surface several times. The merciless self-punishment made his forehead bleed, but he had such a great tendency to inflict self-harm that he probably did this much every day before breakfast.

Now that Subaru knew it was someone else's body, the disgust he felt when seeing Petelgeuse act that way was stronger than ever before.

Either way, it would not do for him to self-punish to the point of dying. Behind the scenes, the operation was quietly proceeding—messing up by letting Petelgeuse switch bodies would waste everything.

"Please stop, Lord Archbishop! Such actions bring no joy to the Witch Cult!"

"Ahh, but! Butbutbutbutbuuuuut! My very own sloth! My sin! The ugly fact ONE such as I have not repaid Her love! I possess no other way to REPENT!!"

"That is not so! The Witch Cult would rather its cherished followers repay her favor than see them hurt themselves! It is the will to carry out the trial that will surely bring it joy!"

Petelgeuse was continuing to thrust his head against the ground when

Subaru used rambling speech to stop him. But suddenly the words brought Petelgeuse to a halt; he stared at Subaru, eyes wide open. With those parched eyes upon him, Subaru strongly nodded, not that it meant anything to special to Subaru.

When he did so, Petelgeuse's obsession seemed to fall away. A single tear trickled down his face as he spoke.

"Yes, it is just as you SAY."

"—?!"

He said it in an uncharacteristically gentle way. The next moment, Subaru found Petelgeuse strongly embracing him.

Subaru's throat caught as powerful, instinctive repugnance hit him, but the madman paid his reaction no heed. Petelgeuse grandly wept, wiping away neither his flowing tears nor the blood on his forehead.

"Ahh, I am wrong, I am deeply mistaken! Yes! The trial! What I require is not to punish, judge, or slay myself, but the trial! What terrible slothfulness, forgetting that while wallowing in the joy of my own wounds! I thank you! I thank YOU!!"

When Subaru turned in Petelgeuse's arms, he faced upward as Petelgeuse showered him with one-sided gratitude.

Petelgeuse wiped the blood off his brow and thrust his right hand's fingers into his mouth, the same mouth that bespoke the foolishness of selfinjury, crushing the thumb, index, and middle fingers one by one.

"I am worthless if I am slothful! Diligence is the most valuable thing in this world, and in this world, sloth is the worst vice that I must abhor! Ahh,

AHH, ahh, I must repay Her love!"

He was in a precarious, incoherent state in which word and deed were no longer aligned. He reflected upon self-harm as he crushed his own fingers, only to lament his rash actions the next moment.

Subaru, feeling the need to bring his mad, nigh-unbearable nature to a quick end, put his hand in his pocket. However, his palm was not greeted by the hoped-for reaction. More time was needed for the operation to proceed.

"Lord Archbishop—may I speak to you about the trial?"

Fearful of an ugly silence taking hold, Subaru took a deep breath, concealed his inner thoughts, and spoke those words. The last time around, he had failed to get anything out of Petelgeuse regarding the trial, so he was still in the dark about the particulars. A trial meant a test of some sort. The Witch Cult was subjecting Emilia to some kind of test in accordance with its dogma.

If fate bound Emilia to the Witch Cult going forward, he wanted to dig up something…

"Lord Archbishop, now that I have joined you, I would truly like to ask you about the trial."

"The trial…"

When the words haltingly trickled from Petelgeuse, his expression suddenly lost all emotion. Perhaps his mania from before had vanished into thin air; as the madman gazed at Subaru with hollow eyes, he put the remaining fingers—the ring finger and the little finger—of his alreadybloody right hand into his mouth, crushing them with his teeth. And then—

"Yes, the trial! The TRIAL!! THE trial! We must carry out the trial and test her! We cannot fail to test this half-demon, and learn if she is a suitable vessel for the descent of the Witch!"

Subaru was bathed in a strange, shrill voice and stinky breath as Petelgeuse broke into a little dance. Subaru grimaced in shock and disgust as the madman's declaration sank in.

"A vessel for the Witch's…descent…?"

"If she passes, embrace her! If she fails, eliminate her! We must test the half-demon's capacity to accept life, whether she is suitable for the Witch, whether the Witch's love can be sealed within! And the TRIAL is how we determine this!"

The madman responded to Subaru's doubt-instilled voice with his own mad voice, raising his hands above his head in the process. The words struck Subaru like a revelation; he was horrified by the comprehension he had gained.

Vessel. Witch. Descend— If he could take the meanings of those words at face value, then…

"If the trial determines she's a suitable vessel for the Witch, the Witch will descend into her body…"

"Someday that fateful day shall arrive when the Witch is resurrected into this world—! We exist to bear witness to that moment! And for this purpose

I, and my fingers, shall exhaust all efforts… This is MY love!"

Petelgeuse was moved to tears, for in his world, it was the most blessed occasion conceivable. The sight of the madman before him made Subaru sick to his stomach.

Based on all that, all the acts of savagery Petelgeuse had engaged in, all the slaughter he had perpetrated, and his pushing Subaru's heart to the breaking point had been because—

"—You people don't see any value in Emilia herself, do you?"

To them, "Emilia" was nothing more than a box into which they could stuff the soul of the Witch.

They were after a container. Their great objective—the revival of the Witch—loomed large before them. The girl's aspirations, how gentle her heart was, how hardworking she was…these things simply didn't matter.

This was at once bottomless contempt for Emilia as an individual girl and, to Subaru, whose heart was greatly swayed by her existence, a humiliation difficult to endure.

"—Monster."

Petelgeuse did not notice that for a single moment, a single word, Subaru let his true feelings slip.

He did not think of burning a village to the ground as excessive in the slightest if it was for the sake of his villainous goals. He could casually dismiss the life story of each and every person he laid hands upon, brushing their dreams and futures aside.

That was why Petelgeuse and the Witch Cult were Subaru Natsuki's enemies.

"…Lord Archbishop, I have humbly heard your esteemed views. Hearing the ideals of the Witch Cult, and your determination to win, I am truly, deeply impressed. Let's make certain this trial succeeds."

"Ohhhh! You are indeed splendid! Yes! We shall become as one, and wholeheartedly hurl ourselves toward my long-cherished desire! Since the day I accepted Her favor, my entire being, my entire spirit became rubbish devoted solely to repaying Her love… Ahhh, Satella! I BELONG to you!"

Petelgeuse approved of Subaru's superficial praise, accepting it with great delight rather than doubt.

"It is YOU, an ideal disciple, who should truly be exalted! With the favor so rich within you, should you intend to join the fingers. I shall bestow the

Factor upon you without DELAY!"

"Then by all means, please make me one of your fingers!"

"I am truly delighted by your unexpected offer! BUT, BUT…the numbers of my fingers have already been filled. There must be something more suitable for the likes of you… Yes, that is IT!"

Petelgeuse was counting on his bloodied fingers when he put a hand into his habit like he'd just remembered something. What he took out of his pocket was a single black book—his Gospel.

The madman lovingly touched its cover; his breath went ragged as his eyes perused its contents.

"The words recorded in the Gospel, its entire tale of love, is what guides

MY future! Accordingly, all that I am…all that I ever shall be, is recorded WITHIN!"

Froth came into the corners of Petelgeuse's mouth as he browsed the pages with a laugh.

Subaru, who had once stolen that Gospel from him, knew that the strange contents of the black book were indecipherable. But to its owner, Petelgeuse, the characters constituted a legible tale. And his actions were in accordance with its passages.

If that was true, Subaru's real enemy was whoever had written that Gospel's passages to begin with.

"Present thy Gospel."

Petelgeuse, audibly closing his Gospel, spoke that single phrase. The madman cocked his neck at a ninety-degree angle, twisted his hips to the same extent, and stared at Subaru with a neutral expression.

These were the words Subaru feared most. According to previous experience, even if a conversation had gone well up to that point, that question served to sever the flow.

If someone was a Witch Cultist, they had a Gospel—no exceptions. The black books, their origin and method of creation unknown, served as proof of identity among members of the Witch Cult.

Accordingly, Petelgeuse was asking Subaru to show his ID.

Whatever answer he might come up with would greatly influence the course of circumstances, but— "What is THE matter?"

In contrast to the silent Subaru, Petelgeuse left his head bent at that angle, his long tongue drooping out.

All he had to do was show off his Gospel. A disturbing air began to waft around Petelgeuse as Subaru failed to prove himself even to that extent. Amid that bone-chilling aura, Subaru slowly put his hand into his pocket.

Then he thrust what he had taken out before Petelgeuse's eyes. But— "What…is this?"

"As you can see, it's a metia, Lord Archbishop."

Petelgeuse's eyes were wide in surprise, for that which had been thrust before him was a mirror—a conversation mirror, to be specific. There was no doubt that the madman recognized it; after all, it had been in the possession of one of the madman's very own fingers. The fact that Subaru had it was throwing the madman off.

But his surprise did not end there. Before his eyes, the surface of the mirror began to faintly glow.

"Ah, it's turning on. Wow, your face is scarier than I heard!"

The adorable voice they heard over the mirror was very much out of place in the current situation. Subaru couldn't see the mirror's surface, but Petelgeuse was no doubt seeing the speaker, a certain kitty-eared knight.

It was like playing a really bad joke—but this constituted the signal for the operation.

"What have YOU… No! What have YOU people done!!"

"Now, then. Ahem. Tora-tora-tora!"

"—?!"

Ferris suddenly stated those words to an uncomprehending, angry Petelgeuse. The madman did not know the meaning of the words.

Accordingly, Subaru explained them.

"It means, 'The surprise raid was a success'—"

Subaru pointed to the mirror in his hand, laughing at the wide-eyed Petelgeuse.

This was not the made-up smiling face from earlier, but the real Subaru— smiling like a little punk.

"Wh-wha—?"

"You don't look like you'll understand no matter how many times I say it.

Well, don't worry about it."

With Petelgeuse thrown for a loop, Subaru continued his full, beaming smile as he raised a hand above his head.

And then—

"I can't understand what the hell you're saying, either!"

"What a—?!"

Subaru spoke fighting words as he snapped his raised fingertips. Responding to the aggression, Petelgeuse instantly shifted to a combat posture. But the movements of the sprinting figure rushing in from the side proved quicker. "Ga, haa—"

Raising a shriek, the madman was sent flying head over heels, crashing and rolling over the rocky ground.

"—"

Watching this, the pitch-black land dragon neighed, as if to spurn the madman for having made her wait for so long.

The dragon judged the unproductive conversation to be at an end. Her roar echoed across the forest sky.

4

He felt heat from the conversation mirror as he returned it to his pocket. The operation was proceeding to its second phase.

That fact spurred Subaru to harden his resolve once more, raising a middle finger toward the madman's astonished eyes.

"As for everything we were discussing, my answer is no."

"Wh-wh-wh…?"

"If you don't get it, I'll say it so it's easier to understand: After careful consideration of your offer, there is an insurmountable clash of organizational culture between us. Therefore, though this is highly arbitrary of me, I am removing myself from consideration. I pray for your continued activity and growth hereafter…and stuff."

Subaru indicated that talks had broken off with a kind and careful explanation that was even harder to understand. With Patlash close by his side, he proceeded to gallantly mount her, taking the reins as he looked down at the madman.

Petelgeuse, confused as he looked up, belatedly came to understand, whereupon he became filled with anger at Subaru's act of violence and shouted,

"Do you comprehend what you are doing?! I am an Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins! An Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins granted the

grace of the Witch! I have received Her favor, the same as y—"

"Sorry, but I'm tired of hearing about all that. The Witch can go eat shit, Petelgeuse."

"Why! Why, I ASK! Why, do you refuse Her love?! The favor of the Witch! What is YOUR reason for rejecting Her grace? I, who have

abandoned all things for Her, cannot compreHEND!!"

Petelgeuse tore at his head, letting spit fly as he spoke with intense emotion. He actually seemed intent on convincing Subaru with those desperate cries.

If so, exchanging words with Petelgeuse truly lacked even a single shred of worth.

"When I look at you, I sympathize with you a bit, too. But let me tell you this."

Subaru paid the madman's delusions little heed as he recalled the intricacies and rampages that had arisen from his own heart. He'd professed that he was right, asserted that everyone around him was wrong, and had spent his time wailing and engaging in temper tantrums like a child.

I see. It really is unbearable to watch. This is like the horrible example everyone should learn from.

"Right now, you're the one who's crazy, and I'm the one who's right— It ends here, Petelgeuse!"

And so he bade farewell to his own mistakes.

There had been nothing tying Subaru and Petelgeuse together in the first place. The madman, too, instantly understood that it had all been a performance and a fraud. The next moment, his decision was cruel and severe—

"Violence, heresy! You shall pay for this—I shall rend YOU limb from limb and offer your soul to the Witch!!"

Petelgeuse's laments cut off in an instant. His shadow seemed to explode, spreading and swelling as it became a multitude of pitch-black arms. These objects of overwhelming density cascaded toward Subaru like a waterfall to rip him limb from limb, wring his neck, and violate his soul, just as Petelgeuse had declared. But— "Why—?!"

"Hey, I was playing tag, you're it with demon beasts in these parts just two months ago!"

Patlash surmised Subaru's intentions through his unskilled use of the reins, moving more than she had been commanded. The wise dragon's movements deftly evaded the evil hands pursuing them as she leaped, escaping beyond the area of effect.

The distance between them widened. Petelgeuse could not conceal his shock at his perfect opening attack being foiled. His eyes and mouth opened wide, so much that they nearly tore, and he wailed, "Just now! Those movements! You evaded! The Favor granted unto me?! Impossible, insufferable! Why can you see my authority?!"

"Who knows? The Witch left her scent on my body, so go ask her. Oh, did I mention that unlike you, the Witch gave me a meet-me-anytime permission slip?"

"—! What do you mean by… You blaspheme the Witch, Satella, by feigning closeness to Her!"

"Hey, we're so close she reaches out and grabs me by the heart— literally."

Subaru added a wink, taunting Petelgeuse with a maximum of ridicule.

That moment, the madman's tolerance instantly reached the boiling point; his face went red with rage as he bit his own fingers to the core. A dull sound rang out as his teeth snapped the fingers, crushing nail, flesh, and bone alike.

Responding to his intense emotions, the shadows swirling around the madman increased in density. Their total number increased, and even for Subaru, able to see the invisible evil hands, the difficulty level had just been jacked up.

However, the one most surprised by the increase in the evil hands' numbers was Petelgeuse himself.

"The Factor granted to my fingers has returned…?! Why?! What has happened to my…?!"

"As the Witch Factor you handed out comes back, the number of hands you can control increases. Well, the answer's obvious, isn't it? Hey, do the math, Lord Archbishop! Or maybe you're just too lazy!"

"—! —!!"

Petelgeuse was at the mercy of consternation and rage when Subaru redoubled his taunt. When it came to getting under other people's skin, Subaru Natsuki came second to none—but an opponent like this, with zero resistance against instigation, was practically dancing on the palm of his hand.

Exactly as planned, Petelgeuse was so angry that his face was dark red, thrusting his bloodlust-infused fist toward Subaru and sending the arms to bluntly smash him flat and rip his very life out.

"Patlash—!"

The land dragon grasped Subaru's intent, continuing to evade the carpet bombing–like Unseen Hands offensive with frightening accuracy. She was so dependable that Subaru truly couldn't bow his head enough to her.

Subaru judged that they could continue to hold out against the first wave of attacks.

"Operation Stage Three, let's go!"

"Just how many petty games do you intend to play…! Against my diligence, this is all futile… Aa?!"

Petelgeuse readied himself for a counterattack, but the next moment, Subaru's action made his words choke in his throat.

"Turning your back to me… Just how much do you intend to mock me?!"

"Sorry! But your stinky breath is making my eyes burn, so I have no choice!"

With a command to Patlash, Subaru moved away from the rocky area and made a beeline for the forest. Patlash violently trampled the grass, blowing open a makeshift road like the wind itself as they distanced themselves from their foe.

"Do not think that! I shall allow you! To ESCAPE!!"

Petelgeuse shouted, but in contrast to his words, he crouched down then and there. The instant after he did so, he sat holding his knees like a gym student as a shadow grabbed hold of him, hurling the madman toward the heavens.

As if in a twisted game of catch, his body sailed with ease until another evil hand caught him. Catch, throw, catch, throw—repeating this over and over, Petelgeuse was hot on Subaru's and Patlash's heels as they fled.

It was nightmarish pursuit, and it was not only he who pursued the pair.

"Now, now, now, come forth! He mocks and scorns the exalted Witch, violates Her trial and Her favor! Rend his flesh into tiny pieces and offer him to the Witch!

When Petelgeuse's command fell from the sky, Witch Cultists hidden in the cave under the cliff appeared in the forest without a sound. They had not attended Subaru and Petelgeuse's conversation, but now that they knew Subaru was their foe, they had no reason to hesitate. Their steps seemed to glide along the ground as they pursued Subaru and the land dragon.

Petelgeuse was above the treetops, and at their backs, the Witch Cultists were ferociously chasing them—

"Here they come here they come here they come! Patlash, hang in there!"

"—!"

At Subaru's highly imprecise command, Patlash dealt with the crisis using her own judgment. She opted for speed, crashing through the slender trees that impeded her large frame. She trampled upon roots, vaulted over a depression, and snapped leafy branches apart as she charged straight forward, heading for their destination by the shortest possible route.

"Futile! Meaningless! I shall catch up to you! Even that diligent land dragon's resistance shall be blotted out, overridden by diligence of my OWN!!"

From afar, mad shouts poured down upon them, and the tyrannical evil hands poured down like a waterfall. They aimed at the sprinting Patlash, each landing in the forest with all the force of a cannonball. Huge trees were broken at the trunk and sent flying, with dust clouds swirling up from the ground being pulverized over and over.

But, despite that waterfall, the dust cloud, and the madman's hatred pouring down, the land dragon ferociously burst through.

"—"

Patlash, neighing loudly, was not unscathed. Even so, the land dragon had slipped through the attacks, protecting Subaru and herself. She had faithfully seen all Subaru's clumsy commands through.

"Sorry for leaning on you this hard… You're the best, Patlash!"

"Howeverhoweverhoweveeeer! It ends HERE!"

Petelgeuse's cackling, laughing voice interrupted Subaru's praise for his favorite dragon's valiant efforts. Pointing beneath him, the madman was not speaking of Unseen Hands. Rather, he indicated the group of black figures chasing them.

"—"

With cross-patterned swords in hand, the Witch Cultists pursued the land dragon with unthinkable speed. The menace they posed far exceeded that of Petelgeuse's clumsy attacks.

At that rate, the Witch Cult's blades would slice apart the land dragon's scales, whittling her life away. But a moment before that could happen—

"Wah—!" "Ha—!!"

A high-pitched double roar made the air tremble, becoming a shock wave that bore through the world.

These very particular voices formed a roar wave that enveloped large trees and boulders in a straight line, rocking the atmosphere as it slammed into the Witch Cultists. Bloody mist danced in the air where the shock wave had slammed into the group.

So far as Subaru knew, only three people in that world were capable of using such voices.

"Whoaaa! You were in a super-tight spot, mister! You were totally gonna die just now!"

"You were in danger of slightly missing the rendezvous point. This is thanks to Sister's intuition."

With a great and silly laugh, the beast people siblings, Mimi and TB, lined up alongside Subaru riding their large dogs. Their roar wave having rescued him from peril, Subaru looked over to them and raised a fist.

"Hey, I was going all out back there! But thanks, I thought I was gonna bite it!"

"Ohh, thank you! You are very welcome! Yaay!"

"I understand your feelings of confusion… The man above is an

Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins, correct?"

Ignoring Subaru and Mimi's banter, TB glared up at the sky and inquired in a tense voice. The little cat's monocle-covered eye caught sight of the madman, his habit flapping in the wind, and narrowed.

"What's that, that's amazing! That old man's all balled up and flying!

Amazing!"

"I have never before seen such a creepy method of flight."

"Ohh, right! That's what it looks like to you two!"

Subaru, able to see Unseen Hands, and Mimi and TB were viewing reality differently. To the two of them, Petelgeuse, balled up like a gymnast, must have seemed to be flying all on his own, but Subaru beheld the nightmarish sight of tentacle-like evil hands throwing him again and again— well, both were awful sights, really.

"Either way, I'll deal with that one! Take care of the rear just as planned,

'kay?"

"Understood. Let us go, Sister!"

"Oh yeah! Ah! Mister, mister!"

Subaru would continue his dramatic escape from Petelgeuse while leaving subsequent Witch Cultists to the two of them. But just before changing course and departing, Mimi raised her hand to Subaru— "If you win, it'll be really cool!"

"Yeah! Leave it to me!"

At Mimi's words, Subaru gave the little cats a thumbs-up as he leaped forward, praying they would have good fortunes in battle.

Split apart by the roar wave they'd eaten, the Witch Cultists bore down on the pair, weapons in hand. At that point other members of the Iron Fangs— Rajan and company—leaped in from all directions, whereupon general combat began.

Subaru turned his back on the clashing of swords and pointed tauntingly at Petelgeuse high overhead.

"Come on, Lord Archbishop! If you get distracted by kitties and lose track of me, you'll never live it down!"

"—You, you, how far, how far will you go, how, why?!"

Naturally, even Petelgeuse's cheeks stiffened as his attacks were thwarted over and over. Having arrived in the current situation from having lost himself to rage, the madman finally realized that he was in a disadvantageous circumstance. His fingers lurking in the forest had been destroyed one by one, his Unseen Hands, in which he'd held absolute confidence, had been seen by another, and that very moment, his disciples had been ambushed and split apart, and Petelgeuse was alone.

Did that situation not mean he had been dancing on Subaru's palm in every way?

"That cannot be! There is nothing! Nothing recorded of this in my Gospel! What are you, then?! YOU receive favor, and yet you belittle the Witch! You resist, you obstruct the trial I conduct, thwart my PLANS…!"

In midair, Petelgeuse clutched his Gospel, holding it high as he shouted.

His fingers had been taken away, and his authority was ineffective. He did not know it yet, but Emilia and the others had already been evacuated, so his vile acts to bring about the trial had failed before they had begun.

Perhaps, to Petelgeuse, this was what a nightmare looked like.

"What…what are you…?!"

Petelgeuse screamed at the absurdity of it all, froth rising to the corners of his mouth. Subaru calmly replied, "I'm doing this for the fourth time—when

it comes to nightmares, I've seen enough to kill me."

He didn't care about Petelgeuse's confusion or his laments. Deny it all he could, it was useless. The instant before his eyes was the future he'd crossed multiple nightmares to reach—

"You truly, trulytrulytrulytrulyyyy! You are Pride—"

"My name is Subaru Natsuki."

When Petelgeuse shouted tenaciously, teeth creaking, Subaru invoked his own name.

"Knight of the silver-haired half-elf, Emilia."

"—!"

"I don't know about this Pride business, but that's the only title I need.

The rest can go to hell!"

He silenced Petelgeuse with a point of his finger and his caustic words. The next moment, the forest opened all at once. Ahead, another rocky place appeared—but this was not the rocky place where Subaru and Petelgeuse had faced off earlier. That said, it was not Subaru's first visit to the spot.

There, once upon a time, Subaru had lost his life.

"What is this place…?!"

"Earlier I came to an end here. So this is the place that'll be your end— It's that kind of spot."

Arriving at their destination, Subaru commanded Patlash to slow her pace.

Chasing them through the sky, the change in scenery, and Subaru's statement made the madman wary, causing his vile visage to contort.

"—"

Petelgeuse released himself from the evil hand grasping him, carrying him through the air, and fell to the ground. The madman landed, slowly lifting his face as he stood opposite the precipice, straight toward Subaru.

"If it was YOUR goal to invite me to this place…what is it you have prepared?"

"That goes without saying. A mortal enemy—yours and mine alike."

When Petelgeuse asked in a low voice, Subaru dropped from his land dragon and declared as such. His words made the madman grimace. Subaru closed one eye. When he did so—

"—Mortal enemy? Once again, it is quite something, the ways that you address me."

The interrupting voice of a third party made Petelgeuse's head practically bounce as it swiveled around.

Petelgeuse already realized that he had been lured. On guard against a surprise attack, the Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins stuck a finger into his mouth, strongly biting it as he surveyed the area.

But his caution against a surprise attack was utterly meaningless.

"I did not believe I would ever have another opportunity to hear such words again."

Saying this, the speaker leaped straight down from the top of the precipice to the rocky ground below. A surprise attack seemed unthinkable to him as he landed lightly, using a finger to set his handsome hair, askew from the wind, in order.

"—"

Petelgeuse stifled his voice as his eyes widened, gazing at the handsome figure.

However, the handsome man merely stood at Subaru's side, saying nothing of the madman's threatening gaze. Subaru glared at the side of his calm, collected face, grimacing in pronounced annoyance. "What, you've got a problem with my announcement?"

"No, I was concerned that you might be recalling previous events of which you could not be unashamed… It seems you are truly audacious. I am impressed that you would say such a thing in front of me, even now."

"How about I repeat it in your sleep so you see it in your dreams, hmm?"

"I shall pass. Once is quite enough. Should I hear such a statement a second time, it shall be difficult to sear from my memory."

Drawing his slender sword, the knight answered Subaru's biting sarcasm with sarcasm of his own.

Subaru couldn't even remember how often the sight of his perfectly kempt royal guardsman uniform and his purple hair swaying in the wind had annoyed him. It burned him that that abominable sight was so dependable that moment.

"Julius Eucleus, assigned to the Knights of the Royal Guard of the Kingdom of Lugunica."

Identifying himself, Julius poised his drawn knight's sword, pointing its tip toward the madman.

The next instant, lights of six different colors rose up and swirled around Julius, demonstrating their power to the wide-eyed Petelgeuse.

"—I am the sword of the kingdom, the sword that shall strike you down."

"A spirit knight, IS it…? Just how far, truly, just how far will you…"

Petelgeuse's teeth clenched as he received those spoken words. His anger was not so much directed toward Julius for joining to battle as toward the quasi-spirits nestling close to him. On top of that, the madman glared at Subaru and spoke.

"So this, too, is YOUR doing…! Never before have I been so humiliated…!"

"That so? Well, do enjoy—this is your just deserts, y'see."

Subaru replied to Petelgeuse, in whom so much hatred seethed that he clenched his teeth hard enough to split them. Then Subaru patted Patlash on the head, commanding her to depart from the battlefield.

"You've been a big help this far. We'll settle the rest."

"—"

Patlash rubbed Subaru's head with her nose in apparent concern before slowly shifting from the rocky place to the forest. Seeing her go, Subaru took a deep breath.

"Let's do this, Julius."

"You're fine with this?" Julius inquired.

Subaru threw his shoulders back at the question. Unshakable determination rested in Subaru's eyes as he opened his mouth and spoke.

"I won't retreat, I won't bend, I won't lose. I don't wanna lose anyone else."

"I am the man who beat you terribly. Though I swear even now that I had significant reason for doing so, that is no more than self-righteousness so far as you are concerned."

Julius answered Subaru's resolve by speaking of the unforgettable karma that existed between them.

Those words suddenly stirred bitter, out-of-place memories. The humiliation and anguish of that time came vividly rushing back, as if something sharp bit deep into his chest.

"I am not digging up the past in the hopes of washing away the shame. Your resolve is weighty, formed by each decision and action you have taken along the road to this point. Accordingly, I ask you: At this juncture, can you carry out your long-cherished desire with me at your side, not dispirited in any way?"

"—"

"Can you trust in me?"

Julius's question was extremely vague, coming off as out of place and even vaguely immature. But his meandering drew Subaru's attention to the barbs continuing to assert themselves in the deepest parts of him—a necessary ritual, so that he might turn and face them.

At the royal selection conference, Subaru had put on a disgraceful display; at the training ground, his good name was not restored, but rather smashed all too perfectly at Julius's hand, his infamy redoubled.

The devotion of one girl had continued to motivate Subaru, enabling him to rise to his feet again. And now that he stood and faced forward, there was a different girl he wished to support.

Guided by these twin lights, he struggled against fate. He wondered, how could he put the feelings from back then into words now? What kind of passion did he hold, what fierce emotions scorched within him, what colors of light burned bright within Subaru at that time, in that moment?

"I really hate you."

"Yes, I know."

"That graceful air you give off annoys me, the way you talk sounds stupid and shady, and on top of that you clearly look down at me, and now that I think about it, you kissed Emilia's hand the first time I set eyes on you. When someday I'm lavishing kisses over Emilia-tan's entire body, what, that's gonna be an indirect kiss with you? Gimme a break!"

When he thought back, he'd hated Julius even before they had exchanged words for the first time.

The entire sequence of events leading to Emilia's treating him cruelly began with Subaru's antagonism toward Julius. At the royal selection conference, it grew significantly; at the training ground, it exploded; and the ashes continued to smolder thereafter.

Even that very instant, they remained very hot, never ceasing to scorch Subaru's breast.

"You broke my hands and feet, cracked my skull, you even chipped my permanent teeth. Even if they all got healed up, you'd expect the trauma to be real for anyone. Do you even know what holding back is?"

"I would like to point out that was still a great deal of restraint."

"Seriously, that's 'holding back' for you? I really do hate you the most."

Subaru, the self-declared knight, had known repeated shame for his powerlessness, ignorance, and recklessness.

Julius had beaten Subaru to demonstrate what a knight was, fulfilling his role with capability and force.

Subaru couldn't help but pity himself for playing the role of comic relief, but if he set that aside, the man remained, well and truly, the knight Subaru had always wanted to be.

"I really hate you, 'Finest of Knights.'"

"—"

"Because of my shame, I know that you're one hell of a knight. That's why

I trust you."

More than anyone in that place, more than anyone in that place in the past, Subaru intimately knew Julius's sword.

Hence, it was him to whom Subaru entrusted his fate.

For at that time, Subaru had come to know the weight behind his sword.

"I'm counting on you, Julius—everything I have, I give to you."

"—"

Subaru spoke those words to Julius from close enough for two people to shake hands.

Upon hearing those words, Julius closed his eyes. He slowly opened them a few brief seconds later. Julius beheld Subaru in his yellow eyes, nodding strongly toward him.

"Then I shall answer that shame with all my spirit."

When his sword rose, pointing to the heavens, the quasi-spirits granted their blessing to Julius's decision. The vibrantly colored quasi-spirits seemed to revolve around the sword as they danced in the sky. Among them, the two quasi-spirits colored white and black emitted the strongest light— and this increased still, strengthening and rising until Subaru's vision was practically burned away.

Then, when the light shining on the battlefield with the precipice at its back finally relented, the madman moved.

"…Has your farce finally reached its END?"

Petelgeuse, who had kept his silence while watching the exchange between Subaru and Julius, inclined his head. His eyes were bloodshot as he pointed two bloody fingers toward the pair, creating countless vile, pitchblack hands in the process.

"And just what can you do with the addition of a single spirit knight to the fray? It is absurd that any mere spirit could hinder ME, MY path, MY love, MY diligence! You shall fall! I shall tear the others to pieces! I need only commence the trial anew! For my diligence knows no slothful surrender, nor demise!"

"—"

"Ahh, AHH, ahh, Sloth, Slothslothslothslothslothslothslothsloth—!!" His tongue stretched so far that his throat seemed unable to contain it. Petelgeuse dug wounds into himself deep enough to reach bone as he shouted his premonition of death, sending his Unseen Hands to smash the pair flat in one blow.

The evil hands rushing toward them exceeded a hundred, resembling a tsunami capable of covering the whole world, one that would swallow Subaru and Julius up like two pieces of driftwood, crushing them and tearing them into a thousand pieces— "—Al Clarista."

A rainbow-colored glimmer flashed forth, mowing the onrushing Unseen Hands down in an instant.

The aurora borealis danced wildly, reflecting light at seemingly random angles to create blades tracing shimmering arcs. Bathed in that glimmer, the black phantasms dispersed like mist down to their roots, and the savagery they were to wreak was permanently halted.

"…What?"

"You should not act so surprised."

Julius, who had swung his rainbow-imbued blade, elegantly replied to Petelgeuse's dumbfounded utterance.

"If they can touch us, we can touch them. If mutual interference is possible, a rainbow aura imbued with the six elements can cut it."

The six types of quasi-spirits contracted with Julius all rested within the cavalier's sword, giving off rainbow hues. The glimmering aurora of his blade turned it into a beautiful and frighteningly powerful enchanted blade.

However, that wasn't what was bothering Petelgeuse. The madman resentfully shook his head, his feelings of consternation causing bloody tears to flow as he pointed at Julius and spoke.

"You, YOU cannot see them. Surely you cannot. That exceeds the fact that my Unseen Hands have been cut…! That is the problem! You, you cannot, you cannot possibly see them, and yet…beyond me, they are seen by T-TWO!!"

The fact that after Subaru, Julius could also keep his Unseen Hands at bay made his teeth shake down to the molars, his face stricken less by anger and confusion than by deep, powerful fear.

It was the fear of having his final refuge, the very foundation of his faith, ripped away from him.

For the first time, the sight of Petelgeuse like that made Subaru feel sympathy toward him as a human being—but this was overridden by a sense of accomplishment. Take that, will you? He truly, finally, had found an edge.

"A base villain like you who knows not the favor of the Witch cannot possibly see the grace granted unto me alone…!!"

Visibly spitting blood as he screamed, Petelgeuse was denying the reality before his eyes. Accordingly, Subaru taught him just what was happening, further pounding that reality home.

"I'm the one who sees them, Petelgeuse."

"…! What?!"

"I'm the one who sees your Unseen Hands. Julius is just seeing what I see. It feels even ickier than I expected, though."

This was the quintessence of Nekt, the magic to share one's thoughts.

Normally the magic was used to link together the minds of human beings within Nekt's area of effect, enabling simple telepathic conversations. However, it required careful use, as befitted high-ranking magic. Once Julius had explained the dangers thus: "If the empathy level is too high, the boundaries between the self and others become blurred, and beings become mixed with one another."

If you mixed two minds together enough, in other words, synchronized the senses, raising the effectiveness to its highest extreme—

"It is possible to mentally maintain two persons' senses joined as one— though I had certain doubts about your sanity when you first made this proposal."

"But we pulled it off, didn't we? When you put men and courage together, they can do anything."

Through the power of Nekt, Subaru's and Julius's senses were completely synchronized on a deep level.

That moment, through Subaru's sense of sight, Julius had to be seeing it, too—the sway of Petelgeuse's countless Unseen Hands seemingly dyeing the forest black.

Subaru was also aware of the mana coursing through Julius's entire body, and of the warm pulses imparted by the quasi-spirits that flowed into him.

The input from the five senses was doubled in the process, creating the incredibly discordant feeling of having ten senses.

"Just to get this out of the way, I don't think we can keep this thing going for all that long."

"I completely agree. Even if you beg, I shall never do this for you again."

As Subaru twisted his lips, Julius gave his words an ironic laugh as he poised his blade. With the aura-imbued cavalier's sword, even Unseen Hands, Petelgeuse's trump card, could be opposed head-on, but neither of them had any room to send a shred of pity or mercy the madman's way.

"Why you…why you, why you, whyyouwhyyouwhyyouwhyyou whyyouyouyouyouuuuuuuu!!"

Petelgeuse wailed as his unfocused bloodlust made the shadows explode.

Evil hands beyond count scattered and flew in all directions, forgetting even to aim as forest, ground, and boulder were destroyed, shorn, and sent flying.

The shameful sight of the madman surrendering to his basest impulses was so repulsive, it made one want to turn away, but Subaru clenched his fist tighter, not averting his eyes in the slightest.

He absolutely could not avert his eyes for the remainder of the battle.

From the opening to the conclusion, Subaru had to burn the battle into his eyes for both their sakes.

"Doesn't feel too good to have my fate and yours be one and the same— Let's get this over with."

"Yes, so we shall."

The knight sliced away the pitch-black evil hands pouring down upon them; with a horizontal slash, he neatly sliced one onrushing hand in two.

Julius watched as the arms thus burned away turned into black specks, scattering only to be swallowed by the wind and carried away. He laughed and said,

"With your eyes, I shall strike him down, Subaru Natsuki—my friend." 

CHAPTER 4

THE END OF SLOTH

1

The black, overwhelmingly violent torrent bore down on them head-on, but the rainbow aurora slashed it apart.

"—!"

The sword's wielder lashed out, slicing down the oncoming evil black hands one after another. The process repeated dozens of times over.

Julius's rainbow-gleaming sword was an enchanted, certain-death blade imbued with the magic of the six elements. It could even rend Petelgeuse's Unseen Hands asunder; dispersed into mist, the shadows dissipated and vanished.

Subaru didn't understand the principles at work. But perhaps it was difficult to reconstitute Unseen Hands severed by the rainbow, for the shadows grew thinner as the sword blows swept away the evil hands; Petelgeuse's rage grew thicker in their stead.

"This is not amusing. This is not a joke. This is something that cannot be! For such a method, a ploy, a child's trick! To impugn! My love! My devotion…!!"

"Not a very nice way to recruit someone…and your organizational culture looks pretty awful to me."

The madman frothed at the corners of his mouth as his inexhaustible shadow arms pounded away. However, Julius countered the evil hands with his rainbow or evaded with his movements alone. With elegant steps the knight danced across the rocky ground, performing a sword dance as he dominated the battlefield.

Even so, the evil hands knew no limits, over ten constantly bearing down upon him, pounding their malice upon him. A single sword swing could not defend against them all. Naturally, Julius's limbs took glancing hits, and a number of lacerations were carved into him.

"Ngg—"

Though he was willingly on that battlefield, Subaru's shoulders leaped several times at the sharp pain. The graze of a black finger made the pain of his thigh splitting burn into his brain. For a moment he nearly let out a cry of pain, but he bit into the flesh of his cheek and endured. He strongly clenched a fist in response to the burn of his shoulder splitting.

At that time, Subaru and Julius's five senses were completely synchronized via the magical sharing of their thoughts. Accordingly, Julius was able to see Unseen Hands through Subaru's vision; for his part, Subaru had become able to trust in the might of the magic sword in Julius's grasp.

"—"

However, putting that goodwill aside, the makeshift partnership was extremely precarious.

Thanks to their synchronization, both had been seeing double. When partnered as such, their vision would be constantly blurry, as if the left eye and the right eye were looking at completely separate scenes. And, as touch was included in the shared senses, not only were Julius's fighting ardor and exhilaration of battle acutely engraved into Subaru, but the pain he felt as well.

There was the sight of the wind grazing his skin, the touch of his leather soles trampling the soil, the taste of blood and saliva mixed together inside his mouth, the ear-ringing sound transmitted to his brain, the smell of risking his life to the utmost, living on the edge between life and death.

The numbers didn't add up. If both were bathed in the experiences of two people nonstop, it simply meant the burden was double. Taste, smell, hearing, pain, touch, sight—right then, they were all a chore.

The dilemma was like having an itch in a place your hand simply could not reach. Perhaps it was better described as having an itch on the back of someone else's head.

"To tell you the blunt truth, I really wanna end this right here, right now…," Subaru murmured, as his body pleaded for an end to the ill feeling and he wet his tongue.

The dryness from the prior moments had probably been passed on to Julius. He couldn't let other physiological responses rear their ugly heads.

It was hard to endure the awful feeling, even though he'd been the one to propose the plan. To think blurring the border between yourself and another meant randomly clawing away at the core of your humanity to such an extent.

But he did not plead for mercy. It was impermissible. And it was no one and none other than Subaru who refused to permit it.

After all…

"It seems you have grown somewhat accustomed, Subaru. Shall I increase the pace?"

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm with you all the way!"

Countless evil hands leaped at Julius before Subaru could even reply. With a posture so low you'd think his chin would chafe against the ground, he slipped under the hands, and with a lash of his rainbow mowed all the shadows away.

As those became mist, the madman sent evil hands threading the dispersing shadows, headed for Julius. But even these fell to the blow of the leaping knight's sword, beautifully blasting them apart.

"—"

Julius elegantly proceeded through the battle, but his brilliant movements slightly faltered.

Of course they did. As the handsome man flung away the remnants of the shadow coiled around his cavalier's sword, the eyes of his gallant face were closed; they had actually been closed while he was engaged in battle, unlike before combat had begun.

This was to narrow the sets of vision from two to one, to achieve victory through Subaru's eyes alone.

If they'd kept sharing their synchronized vision, the world's contours would have become vaguer and vaguer. Accordingly, Julius had closed his own eyes, entrusting Subaru with all visual information.

Julius had made that judgment without consultation. Subaru understood that his judgment was correct.

But at the same time, the true motive behind that action left Subaru indignant.

"Crazy, crazy, you've gotta be kidding me! You really are a disagreeable bastard!!"

Abandoning his own vision and making Subaru his eyes on the battlefield was putting his own life on the line, proving that he trusted Subaru not to avert his eyes from the battle.

On top of that, inserting Subaru's vision into his nervous system was not nearly as simple as it sounded. One way of putting it was that it was like a third-person shooter, fighting on TV while watching himself from behind.

"This isn't a game, and it's lunatic difficulty, one hit and it's game over!

Putting your life on the line like this, gotta be nuts… You and me both!"

"I do not believe you have the time to flap your lips!"

As Subaru kept his eyes wide open, Julius kicked off the rock wall, leaping back to rejoin the boy right at his side. With a swing and a thrust, he prevented damage not only to himself, the main target, but from the stray evil hands headed for Subaru.

During that time, all Subaru could do was sit tight, not averting his eyes, and gasp at the vivid display of skill.

A wry smile came over Julius, eyes still closed, at Subaru's state.

"You are quite a bit of trouble. I understand you are desperately trying, but perhaps you could defend yourself a little more? I cannot face the enemy head-on like this."

"I'll take those words and throw 'em right back in your face! I can barely watch you cutting it that close! Or did you miss the desperate knight I was seein' through my own eyes?!"

"I see a fine young man sad at having to keep his eyes closed. He appears to be handsome and of good upbringing."

"I'm starting to suspect you and I aren't looking at the same world here!!"

The two exchanged banter as they leaped away from the evil hands rushing upon them the next moment. Subaru's feet clumsily slipped, whereas Julius split the wave of shadow with his sword, elegantly slipping through the gap to advance upon the madman once more.

"Amazing."

Rising up after falling on his backside, Subaru spontaneously voiced his admiration at the sight of Julius in battle. Midbattle, Julius had grown acclimated to the unnatural physical sensations with frightening speed, raising the accuracy and sureness of his sword to new heights.

It was not a feat that knack alone could achieve.

This was the experience he had gained through the pain of ferocious training, cruelly using his body to its utmost limits.

This was the end result of clashing with swords and lives in the midst of battle, honing his own skill and conviction to a fine edge.

Hence, without the slightest fear or doubt, he could swing his sword confident in himself.

"—"

Unable to avert his eyes, Subaru stared at the battle, clenching a fist in fierce regret.

He felt remorse at his incomparable powerlessness in that place, and at having spent day after day in idleness.

That feeling joined the pile of regrets that were the difference between Subaru Natsuki then and Subaru Natsuki as he had become.

It was because he was ashamed, because it burned him so, that Subaru could not avert his eyes.

"—I'll be going now."

"Yeah, get goin'."

It was not that he heard the whisper. But Subaru responded to Julius's words nonetheless.

Grazes from the hands sent pain from the gouge in Julius's back, from his thigh, and from his dislocated shoulder slamming into Subaru's brain.

Subaru gritted his teeth enough they nearly broke, for he could not avert his eyes.

Rush, leap, slide, slice back, step, jump, advance, slip under, stop on a dime, glide past, circle inward, leap sideways, twist and evade, turn around, charge in, leap up, kick, leap about—refined motions all.

"Impossible…"

Slice away, slice down, charge in, slice up, kick away, gliding slice, slam, sweeping slice, thrust, cleave, lash, swing down, knock down, slice away, charging slice, slice in—with repeated sword blows and slices, the Unseen Hands turned to dust.

"Impossible, impossibleimpossibleimpossibleimpossible…!"

Eerie black covered the whole of the sky, yet the sight of the knight carrying on his aurora-shrouded sword dance was so beautiful, Subaru lost track of reality. The scene was so surreal that it could make you forget this was a deadly duel.

That was probably because the thoughts of the quasi-spirits passed through Julius and were conducted to Subaru as well. Those girls loved Julius—and in contrast, they hated the madman. They found the madman intolerable—to such an extent that they could never accept him as one of their own.

"This cannot be! It cannot possibly be so! Why is it! How can this be?! MY Authority…! I am loved, I know I am loved, I am assuredly loved! And yet, to this extent, I AM being—!"

"You persist in illogical thoughts and actions. The fitness of your socalled Authority has diminished. More importantly, I have become sufficiently accustomed to this manner of fighting through Subaru's eyes."

As Petelgeuse vented his fury, Julius thrust his sword forward, eyes still closed.

"It is finally time to cut you down in earnest. Here, I shall strike you down with my blade, and bring the long-standing menace Sloth has posed to the kingdom—nay, the world—to an end!"

"As if you can! As if I will let you! I…I am! ONE such as I who has been bathed in the Witch's grace! Four hundred years! Striving diligently to make Her will a reality! Do you really think a fool like you and your fledgling spirit flunkies can defeat me…!"

Petelgeuse bared his blood-tinged teeth as he raged at Julius's words. But the madman's very rage gave Subaru conviction that the final piece needed for his anti-Sloth strategy had fallen into place. Petelgeuse's abnormal hatred toward spirits rivaled his infatuation with the Witch—in fact, Subaru was counting on it.

"Julius—!"

"Understood! —Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins, prepare yourself!!"

Julius stepped forward, advancing with the speed of an arrow. Petelgeuse opened his mouth, deploying his Unseen Hands with an incoherent shout. The evil hands spread through the sky, along the earth, through the forest, as they enveloped Julius to impale him from all directions— "—Al Clauzeria!!"

Circling around the chanting Julius, a swirling vortex of rainbow-hued light erased all the pitch-black evil hands from existence.

The aurora burned through the world for only a second—but that second was enough. In an instant, like the blink of an eye, the encircling net Petelgeuse had wrought had completely vanished. And, in so doing, opened an unobstructed path between Julius and the madman…

"Bahaa!"

Petelgeuse, struck by vestiges of the aurora and caught in the explosions of his shadows, tumbled to the earth. His crushed fingers clawed at a boulder, and the madman looked like he was about to spit up blood as he rose to his feet.

Right before his eyes, Julius drew near, unleashing a sharp thrust aimed straight at the madman's breast.

"I shall…not…let YOU! —Ul Doona!"

Petelgeuse spread his arms wide, intoning a spell as he took a counterattack posture. The next moment, the earth burst upward, and stone walls, a mix of boulder fragments and black soil, enclosed the madman on four sides.

The sword bounced off the rock wall. Mad laughter welled up from the other side, and Petelgeuse let Unseen Hands fly over it, slamming from Julius's blind side to deliver a serious pummeling.

"—"

Dealing with the evil hands meant giving Petelgeuse, on the other side of the wall, an opportunity to escape. However, if he pursued Petelgeuse, he would be slain by the Authority. Either way, Julius's sword could not reach him.

That is, if Julius had been waging that battle alone.

"Blaze, fighting spirit! Howl, demon ball! I've got fifty pounds of will, right here!!"

Twisting his body, raising a leg, taking a great step forward, shoulder rotating in a full swing—with a speed not exactly that of a fastball, Subaru hurled the crimson magic crystal in his hand.

The youth was no baseball prodigy. But he had once had a burning craving for strikeouts at the nearest batting center. His pitch control, at least, amounted to second rate.

When this was combined with his concentration ability in his state of extreme observation, hitting the center of the rock wall with the magic crystal was downright easy.

"What IS…?!"

The crimson magic stone imbued with destructive energies sailed past Julius and crashed into the wall of stone—and exploded in a flash of light and great heat, burying Petelgeuse's field of vision with the vermillion flames from the detonation.

"It cannot be that this, too, was your plan from the…"

"Scorning him as powerless is the cause of your defeat!"

As Petelgeuse froze in shock, Julius's voice reached him from the other side of the flames. The next instant, Julius broke through the flames in a flying leap, burying the tip of his sword in the immobile madman.

"…aa—"

His breast thus run through, the inside of Petelgeuse's entire body was charred by the rainbow aurora.

Slammed into the rock wall behind him, impaled against it, Petelgeuse flailed his limbs. The madman spit out bloody froth, wept, and bared his teeth, as if unable to believe it.

"Ab…surd. Absurd, absurd, absurd…! This cannot…be happening…to

ME…!"

"The rainbow aurora has bitten into your very soul. No matter whose body you reside in, the wicked soul within shall find no escape— Now, fall to pieces at the rainbow's end!"

At Julius's voice, the glow of the cavalier's sword increased. Bathed in that light, Petelgeuse could not unleash Unseen Hands; he could only groan in agony and writhe in the unsightly manner of an insect on the brink of death.

However, as Petelgeuse struggled, the madness in his eyes was undiminished. He had not given up on living.

"It ends not here! It cannot! It shall NOT!! My efforts are diligent! I shall not permit any thoughts of surrendering to laziness or sinking into SLOTH!

That's why, by any means necessary…!"

The madman wailed, struggled, wriggled, and opened his tattered mouth wide as he tried to escape from the sword. Julius gazed in wonder at his implacable tenacity while twisting his sword, pouring destructive energy into the heart of his foe.

If his heart was destroyed, death was inescapable— Before that point, Petelgeuse made his decision.

"Having lost all my fingers, my destruction is inescapable…BUT…BUT!

BUT! There is still, one vessel, that remains for me…!"

They'd gone all over the place and preemptively taken out Petelgeuse's fingers—the spare physical bodies he had brought with him. Consequently, he had to select a replacement on-site.

"—"

His madness-suffused eyes opened wide and moved around. He looked past Julius and caught sight of Subaru.

A chill ran down Subaru's spine. Simultaneously, Petelgeuse's mad laughter grew louder, deeper— "Ahh—my brain…is shaking."

The moment after his murmur, Petelgeuse's Julius-impaled body crumpled like a marionette with its strings cut. Light faded from its eyes, and its limbs drooped, all signs of life falling from them.

The time had come. Subaru thrust a hand into his pocket and shouted to Julius.

"Julius! Release!"

"Acknowledged!"

Responding to Subaru's call, Julius released Nekt just as they had arranged. As a result, Subaru was instantly freed from the ill feeling of two layers of five senses—but didn't even have time to breathe.

For next, in place of Julius's five senses, came a foreign existence, overwriting the impudent Subaru.

Stuffed into his chest, the invisible entity robbed him of his right to control his own body—and its shrill, earsplitting laughter echoed inside Subaru's own skull.

Subaru proceeded to bend exaggeratedly backward, opening his eyes and mouth to their utmost in acclamation.

"I. Knew. It! This flesh is a vessel with the capacity to hold ME! And with no way to stop ME! No way to impede my path! AHH, ahh, you, were

LAZY!"

Petelgeuse's existence felt so close, it was as if they were sitting side by side in the same brain.

This was the final stage of Possession—with his fingers lost, Petelgeuse had moved to take over Subaru's body.

Subaru had no way to resist that savage blow. He'd lost the freedom of his body as the madman consumed his mind.

"Now this is the body of YOUR friend, yes! Can a knight aspiring to noble virtues bring himself to cut it down?!"

Having taken Subaru as a hostage, Petelgeuse licked Subaru's face with his own tongue. The words caused Julius, looking ready to rush over, to halt his feet as he spoke.

"Certainly, I cannot bring myself to cut him down."

"Then—!!"

"Accordingly…"

As Julius spun the quiet word, he showed the madman his own left hand. He held a glowing conversation mirror in the hand opposite to that gripping his cavalier's sword. Subaru had passed Julius the mirror in his pocket the instant Subaru was being possessed.

Its glowing surface displayed a cat-eared knight who had been observing the battle since the outset.

"Now it is your turn, Ferris!"

"Subawu, you big fat idiot for making me do this! I'm going to rip you to pieces later!"

When Julius addressed Ferris through the conversation mirror, the latter's voice sharpened to a point. The ill omen made Subaru/Petelgeuse's eyes open wide, and in accordance with that premonition, Ferris carried out the attack.

However, with his actions having been read through Return by Death, there was nothing he could do— "Unseen...?! GaAaaaaaH?!"

The instant he tried to unleash the Authority, Subaru/Petelgeuse screamed so much, it seemed his throat would burst. The cause was an explosion inside the body that released a torrent of unfathomably vast heat and anguish.

With a wobble, Subaru's body lost its strength and, still feeling hot all over, collapsed onto the ground. His skull felt like a sauna within which his brain was boiling, with his scalded mind cutting in and out over and over.

And Petelgeuse, sharing his flesh, had shared that very bitter taste.

"A…ga…haa… What…what…happ…?"

Having experienced the novel anguish of having his brain sterilized through boiling, Petelgeuse moaned, his confusion plain. Subaru, clawing together his mental strength, stuck his tongue out at the abominable soul that was his roommate as he answered.

"If the body you take over ain't…in good shape, you can't…do a thing, can you?"

"It cannot be…it c a n n o t c a n n o t c a n n o t c a n n o t c a n n n o o o o o o t t t t t t tt t…be!

YOU, you expected ME to shift to your body?!"

You bet! Subaru grandly stated as Petelgeuse expressed shock inside his brain.

They were two minds in one body. It felt odd for Subaru's declaration to leave Subaru speechless. On the inside, Subaru apologized over the conversation mirror to Ferris for foisting such a distasteful task upon him.

—For it was Ferris, on the other side of the conversation mirror, whose spell had robbed Subaru's body of its freedom.

For the purpose of healing, Ferris had interfered with Subaru's Gate, making it possible for him to make the mana inside Subaru's body go berserk through use of water magic. Indeed, it was he who had delivered fatal damage to Subaru the last time around when Petelgeuse had possessed Subaru's body.

He'd made Ferris, proud of his power as a healer, use that power to take a human life. And yet, Subaru had asked him to use that power in such a fashion once more, so as to lay the final trap.

"So thanks to that last request, this body's no good, either… So ready to give up yet?"

"Give up? Give in? As if I would surrender! At this rate, I will rob your flesh, and it will be me, by me, for me, only me—me, me, ME?!"

Beyond his normal madness and fury, Petelgeuse, in a true sense, had begun to go insane.

To so great an extent his moves had been read in advance, his plans thwarted, yet even so, Petelgeuse wailed while tenaciously clinging to his delusions; and Subaru, even as he tasted the suffering of his blood boiling within his body, hardened his resolve.

"At this rate, I'll die…and that'll be traumatic for Ferris… I don't wanna die, either, so I'm gonna settle things with you. We're just gonna do it my way…"

"What, are…more, unto me! What more, DO you seek from me?!"

Petelgeuse's voice shook; he was aghast at Subaru's words, words that foretold what was coming.

That moment, with Petelgeuse sitting right next to him in his brain, he knew. The madman was closer to him than he needed to be, conveying his fear and denial so much that it hurt.

The same went for him. Hence, he knew that Subaru's resolve was the real deal.

"Are you scared? Now, after all the things that you've done?"

"All unto love! All to repay Her favor! What do you know about ME?!

All YOU have done is interfere and obstruct my path! What is it with

YOU?!"

Petelgeuse knew not Subaru's true identity. He was simply afraid.

The madman did not understand whence sprung the hatred Subaru bore toward him. Subaru and Petelgeuse's lives had never crossed, not even once. At the very least, that was true as far as he was concerned.

"Your actions are simply out of irrational resentment…misplaced to the

EXTREME!!"

"…There's no point talking to you anymore. Even among human beings, there are people you can't have a frank conversation with. That goes double if you're not even a human being."

"—"

Subaru's voice, tinged with disappointment and understanding, sent Petelgeuse into shock.

The madman's reaction was raw, for Subaru's declaration had penetrated his stupor to strike at the truth.

"What. Are. You… Are you saying…you know about ME?!"

"The fact I lured you to this rocky place should've made you imagine a nut being cracked— It's a place only for proper spirit mages and—this is flattering myself—people qualified to become 'em."

This was the final condition for Possession that the conversation between

Subaru and Julius had uncovered—

"Forcing a pact onto a human being qualified to be a spirit mage and takin' over their bodies. That's the truth behind your Possession, Archbishop of…no, spirit, Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti!"

"You dare—!!"

When his true nature was exposed in a loud, brash voice, Petelgeuse, lurking inside Subaru, forgot his fear and shouted back.

Subaru had realized Petelgeuse's true nature when in thought in the middle of the Possession incident the last time around. The real tip-off was Ia, the quasi-spirit.

Last time around, Ia ought to have been residing in Subaru's body, but the instant Petelgeuse possessed him, she was shot out of Subaru. That unnatural occurrence led him to broaden his speculation. It was for this reason Subaru began to suspect that his hatred of spirits—and of the spirit mages employing them—was hatred of his own kind.

Petelgeuse's Possession was an irregular pact, the effect of Petelgeuse himself being an evil spirit. Accordingly, he saw spirit mages, which already had formal pacts with spirits, as his enemies. Even if he could hijack a provisional pact, he could not do so to a formal one. That was why spirit mages were his mortal enemies.

It was because of Julius's sword, and the power resting within it, that Subaru had selected him for the decisive battle—

"Wow, getting ticked at me hitting the bull's-eye. Maybe while possessing people their humanity rubbed off on you?"

"Silence! Do not! Do not compare ME to spirits! Do not put me together with such lowly beings! I am a being beyond that of spirits! I am a chosen being surpassing mere spirits, abandoning vague selfconsciousness and granted an objective through Her favor! What do YOU know about me?!!"

Petelgeuse vented, forgetting all about the flesh he had taken over as his rage and hatred exceeded all limits. Ironically, the contents of his words only bolstered Subaru's deductions, and the more he denied it, the deeper he dug his own grave.

"Love has changed ME! Love has given me will, a reason to exist! This, and everything, is by the grace of the Witch! The Witch's favor! Thus! Thusthusthusthusthusthus! I must offer this body, this soul, everything to the WITCH!"

"You can save the sermon, Lord Archbishop—I'll grant you an audience, then…just for you."

"What?! With whom?! Of what do you speak?!"

"Why, the great Witch you've been waiting for."

Root and branch, Subaru's statement blew Petelgeuse's fierce emotions away.

What remained was shock and bewilderment, and for the first time, Subaru had a glimpse of the underside of Petelgeuse's madness.

As the mad thoughts went blank, Subaru turned toward them, choosing that moment to be the one to draw near.

"—I've Returned by Death…"

The instant he spoke the forbidden words, the world lost its color, and all motion came to a stop.

And then it came for Subaru.

2

The world that greeted him was dominated by darkness, and darkness alone.

It was a hazy space, a world of nothing, an empty vacuum where even his own body did not exist.

Whether his body existed or not was unimportant; it was a world where existence or nonexistence held no meaning, a world where you knew not if you even had a soul.

There was a sense of oblivion alone, and there was a blissful, familiar feel to that oblivion. If he could feel anything at all in that place, he could somehow make out his own existence.

Within that darkness, where even his mind was hazy, there suddenly came a change, and the world's ambiance shifted.

"—"

In that world without light, there was a pitch-black figure blotting out even that darkness.

It was a woman. He could grasp that at least.

Her face and the contours of her body were so uncertain, he could not be sure of anything about them. And yet his heart seethed.

This chance meeting with her—no, not a chance meeting; this was a reunion.

This was blessing, this was grace, this was gospel—this was true love.

His lack of fingers irritated him. He wanted to walk over and take her hand that very instant.

His lack of a mouth irritated him. He wanted to lavish words upon her to express his feelings.

His lack of a body irritated him. If she so desired, he would offer her blood, bone, flesh—all of it.

His being only a soul irritated him, for he had but that single thing to offer her.

" "

As before, she continued to hold her silence. But her mind had certainly shifted in his direction. That was enough. Being in a world where she paid heed to his existence felt as good as if he had ascended to heaven.

And his soul, yearning for love for so long, would be hers, forever—

"—This is wrong."

The voice was tinged with disappointment and despondency.

He had prepared to receive her first words with supreme bliss, whatever they might be. Yet the instant he heard her voice, it created a shadow of worry that made his entire being tremble.

Why did it feel like this? Here, in the place that would surely grant the love that he sought…

"—You are not him."

Her disappointment deepened, her ardor dissipated, and finally her despondency changed into another emotion—anger. "Why is someone not him here, in our place—?" The voice shook with anger.

The angry, hateful, accursed words rejected the soul, ripping it into pieces.

Unable to grasp the reason for her pushing him away…unable to accept the reality that she truly detested him, and that his love could never reach her…he desperately sought words of sadness and lament, a voice that he could exhaust to assuage her heart.

But he had no mouth to use to form such words, nor fingers nor a body to act out his will. All he had in that place was his soul—and she had rejected him, not permitting him to offer even that.

"—Begone."

The bewilderment, consternation, and grief of his thoughts never reached her. They were meaningless, for to her he was worthless, meaningless, and idle.

Bathed in rejection and repudiation, he accepted his despair; the misery shattered his soul.

Torn away from the framework of the world, his mind was cut from it; and so he sank far, far away, the reunion he had so yearned for…severed.

The sight of her grew distant.

She, whom he had so much, so greatly, so earnestly yearned for, vanished into the ether.

But she no longer cared about such laments.

She merely gazed silently, earnestly, into the pitch blackness—

"I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love

you—"

It was not to anyone present, but someone elsewhere, to whom she continued innocently whispering her love.

3

"—Aaagaah! I'm baaack!!"

Liberated from the agony he'd thought would last forever, Subaru's mind caught up to the speed of reality.

The pain of his heart's being mercilessly squeezed was the strict penalty for speaking that which was taboo. The hands wrought from black shadow— they greatly resembled Petelgeuse's Authority, a fact likely related to the Witch.

Return by Death probably had something to do with some fated connection between Subaru and the Witch of Jealousy. Or perhaps it had something to do with Subaru's being summoned to another world in the first place.

"Either way, I'll find an explanation someday… But right now…!"

Brushing his misgivings aside, Subaru moved his cramping limbs and rose to his feet. He vigorously used a sleeve to rub grimy drool off his cheek, practically gluing himself to the boulder right next to him as he climbed upward.

Then, as the foreign element purportedly in him vanished, he shifted his eyes toward the rock face.

"…How…can…this…BE…?!"

Subaru saw Petelgeuse there, crawling in a pool of blood. Having returned to his own corpselike body, Petelgeuse dragged it forward as he wept, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

He had abandoned Possession of Subaru, breaking the forced pact, his mind returning to his own body. Having shared Subaru's body, he had to have suffered the same penalty from divulging Return by Death.

In a possessed state, pain was shared, too. Subaru had identified his comparative endurance as his final trump card against Petelgeuse.

"Worst case, I was ready to do that over and over till you tapped out…but you gave up after just once. No guts, huh?"

Wheezing while boasting of victory, the bluffing Subaru felt strength drain from his legs. But he used a branch behind him to support his tottering body, giving a snort toward the side of the face of the man standing beside him.

The knight—Julius—gave a pained smile at his demeanor, swinging his sword and turning it toward Petelgeuse.

"This time, we finish this."

There was a pale glow along the blade of his bloodied cavalier's sword as the quasi-spirits shrouded the edge in a rainbow aurora once more.

With the rainbow sword, able to cut all things, resting in his hand, Julius stared straight at Petelgeuse.

"I love…love, my love… My love is…"

Mumbling words over and over, now lacking the strength even to crawl, Petelgeuse did not notice Julius. Even if he had, it surely would not have changed anything.

Blood did not stop coming out of the wound where his chest had been impaled, and the ashen-pale look over his face was that of despair and death.

"—"

Finally, in front of the sheer cliff, the madman set his back against a boulder and turned his head.

Having lost the willpower to even act disturbed, Petelgeuse looked at Julius with a dumbfounded expression. His gaze proceeded to lower, shifting toward Subaru, standing behind the knight—whereupon he suddenly exploded into emotion.

"Why, why…WHY?!!"

Tears flowed from his wide-open eyes. The hot droplets drenched his cheeks.

These were not the tears of joy Subaru had seen from him several times; they simply reflected the extent of the rage and remorse pouring out of him. They were proof of an unsalvageable delusion—proof that the madman's dream had been shattered.

Petelgeuse wept, looked up to the heavens, tried to clench something that could not be seen, and shouted—

"O Witch…O Witch! O Witch!! I have given this much to YOU! I have done so much for You! Why, why have You forsaken ME?! Why?! Why is it?!

O Witch! If it is so, then MY love… Your favor…?!"

"What you offered her wasn't your own love or faith, or even your own body. You were just offering up the people who happened to be passing by you."

Petelgeuse lamented as if clinging on, searching for salvation, when Subaru's words cut him down.

It wasn't worth listening to a word from him. Petelgeuse was just a selfrighteous creep indulging in unrequited love.

Wilhelm had said as much—that it was absurd to call this love.

Shiii—!

Julius sprinted, his sword homing in on Petelgeuse's slender frame.

The only things Petelgeuse turned toward the swinging, rising sword were teary, misty, wistful eyes. A rainbow-colored sword blow struck his chest for the second time, and the torrent of light burst within him.

The accumulation of mana that was the true body of Petelgeuse—the evil spirit grafting itself to the bodies of others, feasting upon their Odo—was scorched to the core by the brilliantly colored glow.

When the cavalier's sword came out, Petelgeuse looked down, dazed, as hot blood poured out of his chest.

Then, he trained his unfocused eyes overhead, stretching a hand toward the heavens.

"—My brain…trem…bles."

From his slender shadow, he unleashed a single Unseen Hand toward the heavens above. It stretched farther and farther, as if aiming for the dazzling sun above.

However, that hand grasped nothing, heading for thin air before finally leaving a large gouge in the sheer cliff, sending large cracks running along the rock face.

He probably hadn't done it on purpose.

To Petelgeuse, it was a meaningless act. It was an impulse driven by one final delusion.

"—"

A rock slide occurred above Petelgeuse's head. Giant fragments of the gouged rock face split off and fell. Directly below was Petelgeuse, seeking the heavens, and in the end unable to grasp anything— "She never loved m—"

The mass of rock crushed his flesh, and there was a grand sound of flesh and bone being squished.

There was a string of rumbles as dust was blown upward from the impact, and in an instant Petelgeuse was crushed, buried by his own hand under the rubble that would serve as his tombstone.

Having escaped from the peril of the rock slide, Julius walked over to where Petelgeuse surely lay. At the end of his gaze, a large quantity of blood was pouring out from under the boulders. Upon seeing this, he shook his head, returning the cavalier sword in his hand to its scabbard.

"—"

Subaru too walked forward, not speaking a single word.

Then, when Subaru stood in front of the tombstone, he made a small sigh.

It was not a sigh of admiration, or a sense of achievement, or satisfaction.

He knew that the only thing spreading within his chest was a deep sense of emptiness.

Subaru would not sully that time and place by speaking of crude concepts such as victory and defeat.

But he did voice the words that came to the back of his numbed brain.

"Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti."

That single phrase would serve as the marker for the end of that battle.

Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti, Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins of the Witch Cult, charged with Sloth.

He who had battled Julius Eucleus, "The Finest of Knights," and Subaru Natsuki, the Self-Declared Knight.

Before the rubble that was his tombstone, Subaru exhaled a little, and said this:

"Man, you were lazy."

CHAPTER 5

—A TALE ABOUT THAT, AND NOTHING MORE

1

Having tossed his final words toward the tombstone, Subaru turned his back upon the madman.

When he turned around, he saw Julius, one eye closed, and Patlash, standing beside him with a composed expression. Both were wounded all over, but their considerable mental strength meant they didn't let it show.

That said, their mental and physical depletion was severe, and that sense of fatigue was beyond their capacity to conceal.

"Well, not like I'm one to talk. Even if it was for just a second, I let him get in my body and all."

The side effects of Possession by Petelgeuse the evil spirit were utterly unclear. He dearly hoped he wouldn't suddenly wake up covered in blood from subconsciously self-inflicted wounds.

In contrast to such absurd thoughts, Subaru was surprised at the oddly despondent feeling within himself. This was Petelgeuse, the most fearsome foe he'd faced since being summoned to another world. Even with him defeated, the sense of loss inside Subaru's chest outweighed any sense of accomplishment.

"This has to be just burnout. I don't feel sad for him biting the dust one little bit… Stupid, stupid."

After those words to himself, he slapped his own cheek, using the pain to switch gears away from such soft thoughts.

They had defeated Petelgeuse. However, Subaru's goals did not end there.

The largest task remained: patching up his relationship with Emilia.

Starting with the breakup in the royal capital, he'd allied them with the Crusch camp, defeated the White Whale, battled the Witch Cult, and used a white lie to get Emilia and the others to evacuate—once he finished all the follow-up, including explaining after the fact, only then would this string of affairs be concluded.

Beyond his overusing his body, the various events had left him mentally depleted.

"But no one's been maimed, no one's been killed. This is way better. You realize for the first time how precious peaceful days are when you lose…

Nah, I thought that from the start, actually."

Even Subaru, who thought peace and security came first, could not escape irrationality's ire.

That said, the turbulent times had largely calmed. When Subaru turned his head, he shifted it from Julius and Patlash toward Petelgeuse—and then his feet stopped in midstride.

The reason: a single book resting atop the blood trail Petelgeuse had left while crawling.

"—His Gospel, huh?"

He must have dropped it in his dying moments, for the pages of the Gospel were sullied by blood and grime.

Subaru picked it up and flipped through the pages to be sure. Just like before, the contents looked like a bunch of hieroglyphics to Subaru's eyes. The latter half was filled with blank pages, and at any rate, there was no way to ask Petelgeuse about the contents now that he was dead.

"Best to just grab it and talk to Crusch and Roswaal about it later, huh?"

Furthermore, his goodwill toward Roswaal was insufficient to give him the first crack at it. His current absence spoke volumes, so in spite of Roswaal's being an ally, Subaru's trust in him was at its nadir. He wanted to hope Roswaal would make up for it later.

"—Subaru."

As the boy contemplated how to deal with the Gospel, Julius approached him. When Subaru lifted his face at the voice, Julius's brows were knotted with a grave expression.

It was an ill omen. And, as if to bolster Subaru's premonition, Julius straightened up and spoke.

"I know we just settled things here, but let us return to the village immediately. A problem has arisen."

"…I've got one hell of a bad feeling about this. What happened?"

"I have received word from Ferris."

As he spoke, he lifted up the glowing conversation mirror. The mirror's surface was connected to Ferris on the other end. Julius glanced at it, wariness evident in his handsome yellow eyes as he spoke.

"There is apparently something disturbing about cargo aboard the dragon carriages used to evacuate—Lady Emilia is in danger."

And thus, he spoke the explosive words that turned every presumption on its head.

2

When Subaru and Julius arrived back at Earlham Village, the returning expeditionary force had already assembled inside the village.

They noticed the approaching pair, thanking them for the feat of striking down the Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins. However, even as they grandly lifted their fists in celebration, thick tension remained in the air around them.

"Not exactly the mood for a victory party to celebrate the mission's success. If something happened, tell us already!"

"Yes, yes, of course. But first, I need to check both of your wounds."

Responding to Subaru's search for an explanation, Ferris slipped past the ring of gathered men. Ferris was smiling, but there was sweat on his forehead, and his Royal Guardsman uniform was terribly stained with blood.

When his attire took Subaru by surprise, Ferris said, "Ahh…" and nodded as he explained, "It's all right, it's not Ferri's blood. It just got messy during healing. Besides, no one here's as badly wounded as he looks. We had wounded, but no fatalities."

"That's good news… Anyway, leave me for later! Do Julius first."

"I can handle your wounds with one hand, meow. Looks like I need to take Julius's seriously, though."

Asserting that Subaru's wounds were light, Ferris waved a hand over them and activated his healing magic. With a ticklish feeling, the wounds were healed, and even the pain taken away, in the span of a mere ten seconds, the sort of feat expected of him.

"Okay, we're done, Subawu. As for Julius… Oh my, that looks painful.

Come on, strip off your coat."

"Please be gentle."

Julius's reply was crisp, but his wounds appeared deep. It was clear from the grimace on Ferris's face as he examined the wounds that convalescence would take a fair bit of time.

"Your job's finished. Be a good boy and rest… Anyway, Ferris, the other thing. What happened with that cargo…?"

Subaru glanced at the start of Julius's treatment, his feelings distant as he changed the subject. Ferris, receiving the question as he employed his healing magic, straightened up.

"Mm, I know. But I think it's best you speak to the one who noticed first… Oh, Otto!"

Subaru's eyes went wide at Ferris's mention of the unexpected name as the crowd parted in front of him. A young, ashen-haired man practically fell forward as he leaped, slipping through the gap between the knights…

"Otto?"

"Mr. Natsuki! I have been awaiting your return!"

Otto rushed over, his breath labored. He seemed rather agitated as he looked between Subaru and Julius, patting his chest in relief that both were safe.

"First, it is good that you are safe. To be frank, I believed fighting a Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins to be nothing short of suicide, but…

Ah! More importantly, there is something I must speak with you about!"

"Calm down! Take your time and explain. But keep it to a brief summary of the main points."

"Such difficult conditions…! Anyway, this is about the cargo. Actually, I found something odd when checking the list."

"List, you mean of the traveling merchant freight that was left in the village? What was odd about it?"

Otto lowered his voice as he hastily unfolded the list of trade goods he was holding against his chest. Then he flipped to a certain page and spoke.

"Sir Kety…I do not know if that is his real name, but the traveling merchant, Kety Muttat. It would appear he was captured as a spy for the Witch Cult, but…"

"Yeah, I know about him— I see, you knew him personally, didn't you?"

Subaru knew from previous go-arounds that Kety and Otto had come into contact with each other any number of times. Otto had to be in shock that someone he knew had been in the Witch Cult.

But Otto did not linger on that part; rather, he moved forward, drawing even closer to Subaru.

"Sir Kety being a Witch Cultist surprised me, and it is most unfortunate. But that is not the issue— You used his dragon carriage to evacuate the villagers, yes?"

"—? Yeah, I used it. Owner aside, the dragon carriage did no wrong. I didn't have the luxury of leaving a usable dragon carriage behind, so I had to use it to get everyone out."

"And the cargo unloaded from the dragon carriage is as I see recorded on this list, yes?"

"It should be…"

Subaru nodded as misgivings crept in about why Otto was so focused on the minutiae. "I thought so," said Otto, certainty on his face as he continued to speak to the nervous Subaru, his voice hardening. "When I compared the list to the freight, there is something missing that ought to be in the village."

"Missing?"

"A large quantity of fire magic crystals Sir Kety's dragon carriage was hauling is missing—a quantity sufficient to blow seven or eight dragon carriages apart cannot simply vanish into thin air."

3

Kety's dragon carriage was headed to the Sanctuary. Rather, it was being used by the evacuation group taking Emilia and others to the royal capital.

When Subaru confirmed the distribution of dragon carriages after his talk with Otto, he came to a conclusion.

There had been three Witch Cultists hidden among the traveling merchants. Once they'd lost their owners, expeditionary force members had taken their carriages; Subaru distinctly remembered that the carriage Emilia had boarded was one of those three.

"Those magic crystals on the list…they were really loaded aboard? I just have to say, relying on a list from a Witch Cultist is a little…"

"The frightening thing about Witch Cultists is that they melt into everyday life only to become poison when you least expect it. They act as is appropriate for their false identities… You are merely closing your eyes because you do not wish to see, Subaru."

"Even here you whip out the logical... I know. I'm in the wrong."

Julius sternly thrust reality into the nervous Subaru's face. Ferris glanced at Subaru as he prudently abandoned a reflexive retort, turning his eyes toward Otto as he spoke.

"It was Otto who noticed the discrepancy between the list and the freight…but he had another reason, too."

"